* WINNER: Utah - for ranking among the top 10 states when it comes to enforcing child-support laws. A survey by the Children's Defense Fund places Utah ninth in the nation for getting support orders. But there are sharp limits to how much satisfaction Utahns can take in this accomplishment because the Beehive State still pulls in less than a quarter of the amount of money owed.
* WINNERS: Adopted teenagers. According to popular belief, adopted teens are more likely to be troubled than others their age. Not so. That's the report from a four-year, $1 million survey described as the largest U.S. study of adopted babies. It found that adopted teens have no more problems than others their age. What seems particularly important, according to the study, is how parents deal with adoption. In families that are thriving, adoption is a fact of life that is accepted and affirmed, not dwelt on.LOSERS: Women drivers. A new government study shows that the annual average number of women who died behind the wheel jumped 62 percent from 1975 to 1990 while the number of men who died each year went down about one percent. If there's one way that women should not want to catch up with men, it is in terms of equality in death on the highway.
LOSERS: Doctors. The old jokes about their bad handwriting are no laughing matter. The American Medical Association admits that doctors' indecipherable handwriting causes prescription errors that can lead to longer hospital stays and contribute to illness or death. Nearly one in 25 hospital patients suffers an adverse reaction to something done by a doctor or hospital. Excluding surgery, prescription errors are the leading cause of such problems.
LOSERS: Nonsmoking relatives of smokers - for reasons that are brand new. A new Harvard School of Public health study has found greater lung infection in children whose mothers smoked when they were pregnant. Evidently secondhand smoke does not have to be breathed to cause lung damage.
LOSERS: Many Americans who claim to be Christians. Eight out of every 10 identify themselves as such. But only four know who delivered the Sermon on the Mount. That's the sad word this week from the Gallup Poll, which also reports that most Americans do not know what they believe or why they believe it. Gallup identifies this lack of knowledge as the biggest problem facing churches in America.